The Dallas-born investigative journalist was arrested inwards 2012 from his domicile piece he was inwards the middle of an online chat afterwards posting tweets together with YouTube video threatening revenge against an FBI agent.
Brown, 35, initially attracted the constabulary enforcement attending inwards 2011 when he shared a hyperlink to an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel where Anonymous members were distributing stolen information from the hack at safety mean value tank Strategic Forecasting or Stratfor.
The hack allegedly exposed 200 gigabytes of data, which included e-mail addresses together with credit carte information from Stratfor clients, including the US Army, US Air Force, together with Miami Police Department.
Originally facing judgement to to a greater extent than than 100 years inwards prison, Brown was convicted inwards Jan 2015 nether a plea understanding alongside prosecutors to close 5 years inwards jail together with nearly $900,000 inwards restitution together with fines.
The 2 together with a one-half years he has spent inwards pretrial confinement afterwards his arrest were credited toward his amount prison theater sentence.
Brown eventually pleaded guilty to 3 federal counts of obstructing a search warrant, making Internet threats together with beingness an accessory to unauthorized access of a protected computer.
On Tuesday, Brown was released from the Three Rivers Federal Correctional Institution inwards San Antonio, Texas, where he continued his move equally a author over the yesteryear year.
WikiLeaks Publishes 60,000 Emails From Contractor HBGary
On his loose 5 months earlier the scheduled date, Former National Security Agency (NSA) subcontractor Edward Snowden tweeted his reaction, saying:
"Jailed since 2012 for his investigations, #BarrettBrown has lastly been released from prison. Best of luck inwards this really dissimilar world."
Meanwhile, the whistleblower site WikiLeaks likewise published to a greater extent than than 60,000 emails from US individual tidings theater HBGary to celebrate Brown's release.
Hacktivist collective Anonymous initially obtained the emails inwards Feb 2011, simply WikiLeaks published them inwards the shape of a searchable database on Tuesday. Among other things, the leaked emails discussed targeting journalists together with governments.
